Wait a sec Senator Pencilneck. We are more vulnerable than on Sept 10th? Or the spring of 2001 when the cell was taking flying lessons and discussing additional targets? Or when Zawahiri came to the US to raise money for the plot to attack us? I don't quite think so.

The "Muslim world" hates us more now? I have two responses.

A) We are talking tiny matters of degree. On the Rant Wraith 100 point Hatred Measuring Scale they hated us 98.8 and now they hate us 99.1. Read MEMRI from before the invasion of Iraq. The so-called Muslim world was seething with America-hated then. And before 9/11 too. How else could al Qaeda have organized and funded their plots?

The African embassy bombings, the Cole, these occured when Bush was governor of Texas and the dreaded neo-cons were working in think tanks or corporate jobs. Muslim hated is not something we have "fostered" through intelligence failures or the war in Iraq.

B) So fucking what if the "Muslim world" hates us? Of course many Muslims hate us. Many Muslims are our mortal enemies. Remember, we are fighting a war against jihadist who are by definition Muslim. As for the ones who hate us but are not actively our enemies, we can't control how this other world feels. That's their issue. What if I told Rockefeller that the Muslim world has fostered the hatred of the "American world" through decades of murder and violence and hatemongering? Would he say that the Muslim world should get its act together and work on reducing this hate? Or would Senator SilverFoot blame us for the hating?